Staffing as a Managerial Function

Staffing your company correctly will determine how well your business operates. Either you or your managers must oversee the hiring process, so that you can match hiring practices to the needs of your company. All of your functions as an owner or manager depend on the quality of your recruitment and retention procedures. Examine how staffing affects your other managerial duties.

You must plan well for your business to succeed. That planning must include anticipating your staffing needs. You might eliminate some positions and create others as your plans call for different tasks to meet your objectives. For example, you might discover that your customers seldom request shipments of your products and instead request local delivery. In such a case, you could eliminate your shipping department and hire people who can implement and maintain a delivery system.

You have to organize your entire operation. However, you will have little to organize if you don't have your departments staffed properly. Whether you run a hierarchical organization or use a decentralized team approach, you still have specific positions to create and fill. You must determine the skills you need to keep your organization functioning. This requires creating job descriptions and finding employees who can meet the expectations of each position. For example, you might decide to create the position of customer service manager to raise customer satisfaction. You should oversee the hiring of such a manager to ensure that you get the skills you want in the position.

Your ability as a leader depends not only on your motivational skills, but on your ability to hire people who fit in with your leadership style. You can include questions in the interview that test the employee's ability to work without supervision, follow directions or work as a team member, depending on your needs as a leader.

You must control everything that happens in your company. While this involves setting up procedures and designating tasks, it also involves hiring people who have the skill and judgment to meet objectives you set for them. This means you must screen for the qualities you need during the hiring process.

You might find it helpful to treat staffing as a function that permeates all of your other functions. If you make staffing decisions separately from planning, organizing, leading and controlling, you will find that your workforce does not match your needs. Think of staffing as your primary function, and all the others as subordinate to that function, because without staffing, you do not have an organization to manage.